Pattern identification and bit level measurements on repetitive patterns

ABSTRACT

A method of pattern identification and bit level measurements for a high speed digital signal using an oscilloscope converts an input waveform into a bit stream sequence. From the bit stream sequence pre-defined patterns are identified and overlaid on each other to form a superimposed pattern. A center region for each bit of the superimposed pattern is identified, and appropriate voltage measurements within the respective center regions are taken for the bit levels.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to testing signal integrity, and moreparticularly to pattern identification and bit level measurements onrepetitive patterns.

For testing signal integrity of certain high speed serial digitalsignals, such as Serial ATA-II signals defined by an electricalspecification (Version 1.0 dated May 19, 2004), differential voltagemeasurements are specified. The measurements need to be on a signal thathas a pre-defined repetitive pattern. The specification generallyspecifies a methodology that implies the use of a high bandwidthoscilloscope in a waveform database (wfmDB) mode to perform thismeasurement. The wfmDB mode is the acquisition process of sampling ananalog input signal after a trigger event, digitizing each sample of theanalog input signal to convert it to digital data, assembling thedigital data into a waveform memory, and displaying a waveform that isthe accumulation of several acquisitions. The waveform displays not onlytime and amplitude, but also a count of the number of times a specificsample has been acquired over multiple acquisitions. The value at eachpoint (time after trigger event and amplitude) on the waveform is acounter that reflects such hit intensity. However this specifiedmethodology has some limitations, as indicated below.

-   -   A pattern trigger is needed to accumulate samples in the wfmDB        mode so that the acquired signal has the same pattern. However        with the pattern trigger decoding, start and stop of the        incoming data is not possible so there is a chance of false        triggering, which leads to an incorrect “eye” pattern as shown        in FIG. 1.    -   Further the trigger bandwidth of the oscilloscope is limited,        for example to 1.25 Gbps, and therefore cannot be used for high        bandwidth signals, such as the Serial ATA signal having a        bandwidth of 1.5 Gbps and 3 Gbps.    -   Finally the wfmDB mode is limited to a defined data matrix        resolution, such as 500×200. For a 3 Gbps signal a unit interval        (one clock cycle) is 333.333 ps so the acquisition for a 20-bit        pattern is approximately 7 ns. The horizontal resolution of the        data matrix is approximatelyl 3 ps. The specification, such as        the Serial ATA specification, specifies a region of each bit        within which the measurement should be taken, i.e., between 45%        and 55% of each bit—the middle of the bit. Thus the number of        pixels available in the period 33.3 ps (45% and 55% of a bit) is        two, which is not good enough to ascertain the correct voltage        level.

What is desired is a better technique for performing patternidentification and bit level measurements on a signal containingrepetitive patterns arriving at sporadic time intervals.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly the present invention provides a technique for performingpattern identification and bit level measurements on a signal containingrepetitive patterns arriving at sporadic time intervals. An acquiredwaveform signal is converted into a string of characters representing abit stream for the acquired waveform. The character string is comparedto a pre-defined pattern string to identify corresponding patterns inthe character string and to identify a time stamp for each identifiedpattern. The respective identified patterns are overlaid in a hit matrixto generate a superimposition of all of the identified patterns. Thecolumns of the hit matrix corresponding to the center regions of eachbit of the identified pattern are used to generate a histogram for eachbit from which the appropriate measurements are made.

The objects, advantages and other novel features of the presentinvention are apparent from the following detailed description when readin conjunction with the appended claims and attached drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a graphic view of an illegal “eye” diagram according to theprior art.

FIG. 2 is a representative view for converting a waveform signal into acharacter string according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a representative view for pattern matching according to thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is a representative view illustrating overlaying of multipleidentified patterns in a matrix according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a graphic view of an overlaid or superimposed pattern matrixaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a representative view illustrating generating a histogram formeasurements according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram view of the process for pattern identificationand bit level measurement according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The technique described herein enables a user to identify a pre-definedpattern of data within an acquired stream of data. The identifiedportions of the data pattern are superimposed, one over the other, usinga clock recovery and slicing mechanism that prevents erroneous “eye”pattern formations and eliminates the need for pattern triggering at ahigh bandwidth, i.e., is free from false triggering. The population ofthe superimposed pattern is substantial enough, and the measurement isbased on a sample point resolution, such as up to 4 ps. The coremechanism for this measurement is identifying the pre-defined patternwithin the acquired data stream.

The technique is divided into the following steps:

-   -   1. Convert the acquired waveform into 1s and 0s, i.e., a bit        stream.    -   2. Identify the pre-defined pattern and time stamp from the bit        stream.    -   3. Overlay or superimpose the identified patterns from the bit        stream.    -   4. Identify a central region (45%-55%) for each bit on the        superimposed pattern.    -   5. Perform a voltage level measurement on the bits within the        bit stream.

Referring now to FIG. 2, which illustrates how to convert the acquiredwaveform into 1s and 0s zero crossing points are found from the acquiredsignal and a clock is recovered, also from the acquired signal, using aconstant clock recovery mechanism. The zero crossing points representthe edges of the signal that are identified for both rising and fallingslopes on a voltage differential waveform at a fifty percent (50%) levelusing a waveform analysis module. The edge information is stored in twoarrays: one representing the edge indices and the other representing acorresponding time value relative to the trigger event. The constantclock recovery is done using a least square fit algorithm applied to thetransition time intervals with a pre-defined data rate. From therecovered clock data identify a unit interval (one bit time) value. Fornon-return-to-zero data (NRZ) calculate the number of bits between twozero crossings using the unit interval value and zero crossing points.Number_of_bits=crossing_time_difference/unit_intervalThe signal should have a minimum amplitude to detect the 1s and 0s. Twothreshold voltages may be defined such that, if the signal goes abovethe maximum threshold, it is a “1” state and, if the signal goes belowthe minimum threshold, it is a “0” state. Two thresholds are generallyused to prevent false state determinations due to noise or othererroneous low-level variations in the signal.

Go to the mid-position between each pair of consecutive zero crossingpoints and see whether the voltage level is above the maximum thresholdor below the minimum threshold. If it is above the maximum threshold,identify this as a “1” state and using the above equation find thenumber of bits in this region. Now fill an array of characters with thatnumber of 1s, otherwise with that number of 0s if the voltage level isbelow the minimum threshold. Complete the above process for all zerocrossing point pairs of the input waveform. The result is an array of“0” and “1” characters, i.e., the bit stream of data.

To identify the pattern and time stamp from the bit stream a patternverification algorithm finds a position of a pre-defined patternaccording to the communication standard from the bit stream. The bitstream is converted into a stream string, i.e., transfer the bit streaminto a character string. The pre-defined pattern is converted into apattern string. Find all the patterns in the stream string correspondingto the pattern string, and the identified pattern positions within thestream string represent the time stamp for the identified pattern.Referring now to FIG. 3 the pre-defined pattern is shown having a stringof 20 bits alternating between 1s and 0s. An acquired bit stream isshown that has the same pattern replicated corresponding to a timearray. The pattern verification algorithm identifies patterns in thecharacter string corresponding to the pre-defined pattern and theirlocations in the bit stream.

Overlay or superimpose each of the identified patterns having a fixedlength in a matrix, as illustrated in FIG. 4. The dimension of thematrix may be configured by a user, and may be scaled up and downaccording to the signal speed so that there is a sufficient number ofhits counted within each bit. For each pre-defined pattern identified inthe bit stream take all the waveform data points from the start recoverypoint (start index) to the end clock recovery point (stop index). Mapthe pattern (scaled up or down as necessary) into an assigned matrix.Each cell in the matrix is a counter that reflects the number of hitsfor that cell. The cumulative population provides superimposition forthe various occurrences of the pattern in the acquired waveform signal,i.e., identify the position of each data point on the matrix and add oneto the hit count for the corresponding cell of the matrix. This may beenhanced by interpolating the acquired sample, i.e., applying a Sincinterpolation function to the acquired sample. A complete overlaid orsuperimposed pattern matrix is shown in FIG. 5. In the matrix each ofthe sampled values for the pattern is represented as a three-dimensionalvector: X—time scaled within a defined range, such as 0-400; Y—scaledwithin a defined range, such as 0-600; and Z—population for a given X, Ycell or point in the matrix.

In the matrix generation process the start of the recovered clock is thefirst column of the matrix. The end of each pattern is the last columnof the matrix. The start and end of all bits in the matrix areidentified by correcting the calculated edge times using the recoveredclock. Then the columns belonging to the central (45%-55%) region ofeach bit are identified. A histogram of this region is created, as shownin FIG. 6. The histogram represents amplitude values, with the range ofamplitude values depending upon the measurement being made. From thecreated histogram check a condition as prescribed in the pertinentspecification, such as the Serial ATA-II document, and calculate all therequired parameters for the pre-defined pattern, such as for HFTP, MFTP,LFTP and LBP patterns. The amplitude values depend on the pattern anddesired measurement.

FIG. 7 is a data flow chart of the process described above. Waveformdata is input and acquired in step 1. For the acquired waveform datacalculate the zero crossings and recover the clock using the constantclock recovery method (step 2). Calculate a bit rate for the inputsignal (step 3). Identify the number of bits between each consecutivepair of zero crossing points and generate the bit stream sequence of 1sand 0s (step 4). Identify the start positions of each instance of thepre-defined pattern within the bit stream sequence so that there is nooverlap between consecutive patterns (step 5). Create a hit matrix usingall identified patterns (step 6). Identify a center region for each bitfrom the hit matrix (step 7). Create a horizontal histogram for eachcenter region (step 8). Calculate the required voltage levels asspecified in the pertinent signal specification (step 9).

The above technique automates a testing procedure and is extensible tonew patterns that evolve in future versions of a signal specification.

Thus the above described technique identifies bit patterns in a highspeed serial digital signal by converting the high speed serial digitalsignal to a bit stream, identifying a pre-defined pattern and time stampwithin the bit stream, overlaying or superimposing consecutive patternsidentified within the bit stream in a matrix, identifying a centralregion for each bit in the matrix, and performing pertinent voltagemeasurements within the central region of each bit to obtain bit levels.

1. A method of pattern identification comprising the steps of: acquiringan input waveform signal and storing a representation of said acquiredinput waveform signal; converting said acquired input waveform signalinto a bit stream sequence of characters representative of binary bits;identifying from the bit stream sequence a pre-defined pattern of saidcharacters representative of binary bit values; overlaying portions ofsaid acquired waveform signal, which portions correspond to saidpre-defined patterns of characters identified from the bit stream toform a superimposed pattern; and identifying a central region for eachbit of the superimposed pattern for performing measurements.
 2. Themethod as recited in claim 1, further comprising: a step of performingvoltage measurements within the central region of each bit.
 3. Themethod as recited in claim 1 wherein the converting step comprises thesteps of: finding zero points from the input waveform signal; recoveringa clock using a constant clock recovery mechanism; identifying from theclock a unit interval value; calculating a number of bits betweenconsecutive zero crossings using the unit interval value; determining astate of the input waveform at a mid-point between zero crossings; andproviding the bit stream sequence from the succession of states of theinput waveform.
 4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein thepre-defined pattern identifying step comprises the steps of: convertingthe bit stream sequence into a character string; converting thepre-defined pattern into a pattern string; finding a plurality of thepattern strings within the character string, the relative positionsrepresenting a time stamp for each found pattern string; and storing thefound pattern strings from the bit stream sequence.
 5. The method asrecited in claim 1 wherein the overlaying step comprises the steps of:identifying a start clock recovery point for each stored found patternstring; and mapping the pre-defined pattern for each pattern string intoa hit matrix to produce the superimposed pattern.
 6. The method asrecited in claim 1 wherein the center region identifying step comprisesthe steps of: identifying a start and end for each bit in thesuperimposed pattern; identifying columns of data in the hit matrixbelonging to the center region for each bit; and creating a histogramfor each bit from the data within the respective center regions.